michelle florinoid, who is well qualified. also in the running is ashton carter, the current deputy defense secretary. now, defense isn't my issue, but i'd like to know, which of these people would do the best job. we keep skipping the interview process, going right to the smearing portion of the evening. not here on the rachel maddow show. tonight we have someone who really knows. she is one of the smartest defense experts i know, heather herbert. heather, nice to see you. >> that's quite an introduction to live up to. >> i'm sure you'll do fine. when you think of the secretary of defense job, what is the job description? what do they need to be able to do well? >> the next defense secretary is going to have to do three pretty hard things well. one is to lead the pentagon out of afghanistan, lead our military into redefining itself as to what does it do? why do you serve in the post-post-9/11 era? second, lead the country in more defense spending cuts, which is coming. and third thing is really to lead the nation through a discussion of what's our military for in the post-post-9/11 era? wh
